As many as half a million people have been forced to flee the Iraqi city of Mosul amid reports that al-Qaeda militants seize Turkish consulate and move into oil refinery town of Baiji

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Iraqi leaders warned on Wednesday of a "mortal" threat to their country's existence, as Sunni insurgents who seized control of the northern city of Mosul extended their grip across the country, grabbing oil refineries and embarking on an orgy of kidnappings and beheadings.
As more than half a million people fled the country's northern capital, the al-Qaeda offshoot group behind the uprising, the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (Syria), declared that it was in "complete control" of roads in and out of Mosul and the surrounding province.
There were widespread reports of violence spreading to neighbouring provinces across the north, marking the greatest threat to Iraq's security since the joint Sunni-Shia uprising against US forces in 2004.
ISIS gunmen were reported to have seized an oil refinery in the neighbouring town of Baiji, and kidnapped the head of the city's Turkish diplomatic mission along with 24 of its staff. Separately, 15 members of the Iraqi security forces were said to have been beheaded near the northern city of Kirkuk after being kidnapped earlier this week. In the city of Tikrit, the birth place of the late Saddam Hussein, the governor was reported to have been killed after militants over-ran his building on Wednesday. There were also unconfirmed claims that the jihadists had taken $400m from looted banks in Mosul, massively boosting their warchests for further weapon-buying.
Iraq's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has responded to the crisis asking parliament to declare emergency rule and announcing citizens would be armed to fight them, while the United States has warned that ISIL now threatens the entire region. Downing Street, however, ruled out any prospect of sending troops in to help, with David Cameron's spokesman saying it was "not on the table".n a visit to Greece, Iraq's Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, called on his country's leaders to bury sectarian differences and face "the serious, mortal" threat. "The response has to be soon. There has to be a quick response to what has happened," he said.

Militants seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul and efforts were under way to ensure the safety of diplomatic staff, two Turkish government sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
"Certain militant groups in Mosul have been directly contacted to ensure the safety of diplomatic staff," a Turkish government source said, adding there was no immediate information on the status of the diplomats.
The governor of Mosul, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said that authorities had a plan to restore security and defeat the gunmen who seized most of Mosul in a stunning assault, raiding government buildings, pushing out security forces and capturing military vehicles as thousands of residents fled.
Al-Nujaifi also accused senior commanders of the security forces of providing Baghdad with false information about the situation in Mosul and demanding that they should stand trial.
He also says smaller armed groups joined ISIS during the fight for control the city.
The United States on Tuesday condemned the seizure of Mosul, calling the situation "extremely serious" and urging fractious political groups to fight Iraq's enemies together.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the takeover of Iraq's second biggest city in the last 48 hours by forces from ISIS showed the deterioration of security in the country.
Washington has supplied large amounts of weaponry to Iraq since pulling its forces out in 2011, but Baghdad has failed to heal festering sectarian and political divisions and to curb instability spilling over from the Syrian civil war.
"There's no question that unity – and all sides and officials in Iraq working together – is the only way that they can be successful here," Psaki told reporters.ISIS originated as an Iraq-based affiliate of al-Qaeda. Recently the group, fighting to set up an Islamic state in parts of Iraq and Syria, has been denounced by al Qaeda's central leadership for apostasy and excessive violence.
Psaki said US officials were tracking events closely in co-ordination with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government and other officials, including Kurds in their semi-autonomous northern region.
"The situation remains extremely serious," she said in a statement.
Over the last year the Syrian conflict rekindled insurgent violence and Washington accelerated efforts to smooth over differences between Iraq's Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds and provided arms requested by Maliki.

Jessica Lewis, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, said Washington had underestimated the threat posed by ISIL.
"This is a conventional military enemy that is pursuing a state vision that involves the destruction of Iraq and Syria as we know them. It's not just a terrorist threat," she said.
Republican Senator John McCain said the takeover of Mosul reflected President Barack Obama's failure to leave a US force in Iraq to help assure stability.
"There's no doubt that we could have left troops behind, as we have in Korea and Germany and Bosnia, and didn't, and so it is now chaos, and so you will see greater and greater attacks and ... chaos in Iraq," Mr McCain said.

Arms and resources aren't going to solve this problem. Few of any within the ranks of Iraq's "security" forces actually trust or believe in al-Maliki's government. From a morale and ideological standpoint, ISIS has already won. Without direct outside intervention the likes of which neither the U.S. nor its allies is currently capable of providing, Baghdad and the rest of Iraq will be in ISIS' hands by the end of the year if not the end of the summer.

Couple that with the fall of centralized governments in Libya and Syria, and what will emerge will be the first stages of the next evolution of sectarian anti-Western rule in the Middle East. There is no doubt in my mind tyat Afghanistan will go the same route once we've pulled out of there as well.

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What we are seeing now is the beginning of the maelstrom that will engulf the entire Middle East.
If ISIS wins and declares its "caliphate" them bastards will still have in-fighting and we still have the eternal grudge between Sunni and Shia so there will never be peace. So this bloodshed will not
end during our lifetimes.
And if US hadn't invaded the country in 2003, WE would STILL have this situation one way or the other. It is inevitable. I feel sorry for all loss of life for a conflict that would have happened sooner or later.
If Saddam had still been in power he would have used wmd's, like
when he gassed the Kurds and others.
The whole situation is what to expect. It's in their nature. There will be no peace.